Sapphire Waters

Name: Sapphire Waters

Gender: Female

Age: 18

Grade: 12

School: George Hunter High School

Hobbies and Interests: Art History, Folk Music, Painting, Astrology, The Occult, Cryptids

Appearance: Sapphire stands at 5’8” and weighs 140 pounds, marking her as relatively tall and lean. In addition to her lankiness and long neck, this led to comparisons to a giraffe in late middle school. Her red hair trails down long past her shoulders, reaching to her mid-back and stands out strikingly against her pale skin. Sapphire has a noticeable overbite, leaving her reluctant to smile showing teeth. Her nose is long and narrow and the blue eyes for which she was named are rather large, making them even more noticeable below her light eyebrows.

Sapphire often wears rather conservative dresses, though to offset this, she often prefers those with colorful or flowery designs. However, in hotter summer months, it isn’t unheard of for her to transition to a simple t-shirt and shorts in order to deal with the weather. Regardless of outfit, Sapphire wears her round, tortoise shell glasses.

On the day of the abduction, Sapphire was wearing a blue and white striped, short-sleeved spring dress that reaches down to her knees, a pair of black flats, white ankle socks, and her glasses.

Biography: Sapphire’s mother, Lydia Waters, was born in Chattanooga to her parents, Albert and Diane. Lydia had a rather troubled childhood possibly as a result of a strict upbringing, possibly as a result of undiagnosed mental illness, possibly a combination of the two. Shortly after coming of age, Lydia left home to make her way towards New York City, on dreams of stardom and getting rich quick, or at the very least getting away from the home she’d grown to hate.

Shortly after making it to the big city in the northeast, Lydia met Robert Kovac, an aspiring entrepreneur several years her senior. In spite of sharing little in common with one another, the two found themselves attracted to one another and began a relationship spanning several months. Eventually, Lydia found that she had become pregnant with Robert’s child.

Perhaps as some leftover guilt from her religious upbringing, Lydia could not bring herself to terminate the pregnancy and when she informed Robert of this, he quickly ended their relationship and cut her off. Being left with few other options, Lydia was forced to return to Chattanooga where her parents, somewhat reluctantly on Al’s part, welcomed her back.

At the time of of the baby’s birth, Lydia envisioned a fanciful future for her daughter, and gave her a name she thought poetic and matched her blue eyes: Sapphire. Following the birth however, Lydia found herself unable to care for the child in the way that she wanted to, as she was ill-equipped for the role of mother and, though not entirely conscious of it, did carry some resentment over having to return back home. Over the years, Al and Diane ended up taking on the roles of Sapphire’s primary caregivers.

Though still quite conservative, the couple had softened with age (possibly in regret over how things had gone with Lydia) and were far more accepting of their granddaughter’s quirks than they would have been in her mother. They also allowed their daughter to stay with them rent-free, although she would only work irregularly over the next several years. This dynamic would lead to Sapphire developing a deep admiration for her grandparents as she grew older, while at the same time growing to view her mother as a distant and irresponsible leech.

Diane and Al both made it clear that it would be best if Lydia tried to get child support from Robert. However, the end of their relationship had left Lydia adamant that she wanted nothing more to do with the man or his money and, though both of her parents thought this decision rather ridiculous, they eventually relented and dropped the issue, partially fearing that their daughter might just run off to the middle of nowhere again.

The family was well supported financially, even with Lydia often not working, as Al was a well respected physician. Additionally, Diane assists in supplementing family income through her work as a teacher, though she makes notably less than her husband. The work Lydia took on over the years was varied and always short term: ranging from working as a cashier to janitorial work, to even attempting to join a nearby theater company, all of which did not last long.

In her early schooling, Sapphire performed poorly, and her grandparents became concerned that she might have some sort of cognitive disability. However, through the use of tutoring, her grades were able to improve, though she would consistently remain on the lower end of her class in terms of grades.

Though she often struggled in the classroom, Sapphire was always an inquisitive child, fascinated by the mysteries of the world around her and eager to explore nearby parks and landmarks to see what she might find hidden in their nooks and crannies.

As middle school came around, however, Sapphire’s more outgoing tendencies would take a hit, as she became the subject of bullying from her peers. Whether it be insults based upon her appearance or stranger tendencies, the girl was left with a greater sense of self-consciousness and timidity that would characterize her interactions with peers through the present day.

Primarily spending time with her grandparents, Sapphire found herself listening to the American folk music of the 60s-70s that the two of them had enjoyed and this fondness would carry on to affect her taste in music even as she moved on into high school. Even though she would listen to more modern acts, she seemed to always prefer those that would incorporate elements of American folk.

Her grandparents also brought her up within their Catholic faith, which she still identifies with to this day. Though her views by this point aren’t entirely orthodox, she regularly attends church with them and prays semi-regularly.

Entering high school, Sapphire remained rather reserved with few friends carrying over from middle school. Seeking a creative outlet, her grandfather suggested painting as a great hobby, one that they might share. Sapphire had done some light sketching in the past, but never really put much thought into her art.

However, after spending some time painting with her grandmother, Sapphire found that not only did she enjoy the art, the feeling of creation, but also that she seemed to have a knack for it.Initially she, like Al, did a lot of landscapes. However, Sapphire eventually came to prefer making art of people, making portraits. She found that, rather than sticking to realism, she much prefered to get creative with her depictions, exaggerating physical characteristics or playing with the use of color in order to emphasize what the picture might not capture: the aura a person projected.

As she has become more interested in painting, she also found a greater interest in looking into art history and seeing how various art forms developed over time.

It was also during her time in high school that Sapphire, with support from her grandmother (though not her mother or grandfather) finally reached out to and managed to meet her father, Robert. Unfortunately the man ended up showing little interest in his daughter beyond feeling an obligation to meet her and possibly provide her with some money. Robert had lost most of his assets in the 2008 Financial Crash and had failed to claw his way back up since, leaving him an embittered shell of the charismatic man she had never known. Upon meeting him, Sapphire’s strongest feeling turned out to be pity. She has not spoken to him since.

Sapphire’s more inquisitive tendencies also never truly faded, though her eagerness to express strange findings and ideas has been tempered. Indeed, these tendencies have found her deeply interested in the stranger, possibly mystical aspects of her world, an aspect of her personality that shared with her grandmother. Diane helped to lead Sapphire toward learning more about notions of the occult.

Though a very religious woman, Diane held a plethora of superstitions beyond her religious faith and had read a fair bit online and in self-help books about New Age spiritualism and witchcraft, and though she thought it somewhat scandalous, she eagerly absorbed the information even relying on some of it in practice, and now passed such knowledge down to Sapphire.

Though not all of the spiritual ideas stuck for the girl, it did foster in her a deep curiosity for the occult and mystical traditions. Astrology is one of these sorts of ideals that did stick with her strongly, deeply interested in reading about it where she can, and has found that it isn’t thought of as being too strange by some of her peers.

However, with other occult topics such as witchcraft which she enjoys looking into and secretly to some wishes to possibly take part in, Sapphire is concerned that it might alienate certain friends of hers, so she often keeps these more quiet.

Additionally Sapphire has come upon a separate strange obsession independent of her grandmother’s influence: cryptids. The notion of mysterious creatures living among the wilderness, hidden away from civilization, like bigfoot or mothman, to be fascinating and enjoyed reading about various bits of evidence for them and occasionally daydreaming about going on her own journey into the wilderness to search for the truth. These sorts of creatures have become recurring subjects in her paintings.

Among her classes, Sapphire performs best in art and history courses, developing a somewhat close relationship with the teachers for those courses in discussions about the subjects after class. In her other classes (particularly math), Sapphire tends to struggle, but through the assistance of tutoring she has been able to keep up.

Within the past year, Sapphire’s family has taken a big hit, with Al being diagnosed with lung cancer. He has recently had to cease working, leading to Lydia taking taking to working on a consistent basis for the first time in years in order to help alleviate the financial burden, though it is of little help. Sapphire is deeply worried over her grandfather’s health, with it frequently occupying her mind.

Sapphire, being relatively quiet and good-natured, often can easily blend into most friend groups without too much trouble, particularly due to her tendency to be a good listener. However, she has a tendency to aggressively separate the people that she will associate with, between those friends that are seen as more socially acceptable and those that share her more eclectic interests.

Additionally, she has had a series of hard crushes on her male peers, becoming focused on her dynamics with these individuals to an almost obsessive degree. However, social anxieties have led her rarely ever acting on these affections. At the same time, Sapphire has begun to question in recent years whether or not she might be bisexual (a possibility she has kept to herself).

Advantages: Sapphire is kind and easy to get along with, allowing her to easily coexist among large groups. Additionally, she can be a rather inventive thinker when given the chance, due to her unorthodox approach to certain topics.

Disadvantages: Sapphire is not physically fit and does not exercise with any regularity, placing her at a disadvantage in physically strenuous tasks. Sapphire’s issues of social anxiety often results in her being unable to fully articulate her ideas. Additionally her creative mind can be a bit of a double edge sword, as it can lead to unreasonable or magical conclusions.

Designated Number: Female Student No. 78

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Designated Weapon: Ji

Conclusion: You know, the strangest creatures live in seclusion. Who can say what you may find before your passing? Consider it a gift. - Adimabua Lawal

'The above biography is as written by Catche Jagger. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Catche Jagger, NotAFlyingToy (post-humously)

Kills: None

Killed By: Lorenzo Tavares

Collected Weapons: Ji (assigned weapon, to Emmett Bunnell)

Allies: Emmett Bunnell

Enemies: Lorenzo Tavares

Mid-game Evaluation: After waking up alone beside the lake, Sapphire made her way to the Waterfall Overlook, intending to hunt for allies. She met up with her friend Emmett Bunnell, picking him out of a crowded gathering along with Emil Van Zandt III, Nona Hart, and Erika Stieglitz. Though things seemed to initially be going well and information was exchanged, Nona suffered from some sort of breakdown and began to hover dangerously close to the waterfall's edge. This threw the group into disarray and drove Erika away. Garnet Barnes arrived and tried to calm Nona down, with Emmett, Emil, and Sapphire all trying to support her. Emmett eventually couldn't handle the situation and left and Sapphire, determined to stay by her friend, followed after him.

The pair eventually made their way to the aviary, where they encountered Coriander Silverman, Axel Fontaine, and an injured Morgan Dragosavich. With them was Lorenzo Tavares, who had allegedly attacked Emmett earlier in the day. None of the others already gathered were friendly to Lorenzo despite Lorenzo's posturing. A fight soon broke out between the two, causing the others to quickly depart. Emmett's reckless charge was easily rebuffed, putting Emmett's life in danger and forcing Sapphire to try and intervene to get Emmett out. Lorenzo beat her back, but she charged in again, more ferocious as her temper and adrenaline were roused. Lorenzo retreated, but his parting blow cleaved through Sapphire's midriff, leaving her hurt and bleeding. The fight fled Sapphire and she begged for help, It was only by being carried by Emmett that Sapphire was able to leave the area.

Emmett brought Sapphire to the bay, where they waited out the night as he tried to care for her injuries, a process excruciating for her. She lapsed in and out of conscious, and in her final burst of life he was trying to apologize to her. She had no energy remaining for anger, and tried to comfort him. She wanted to hang on for her loved ones but could not do it, and she quietly passed away when the first morning announcement came on and took Emmett's attention for a few minutes, leading her to die with no final words.

Post-Game Evaluation: Ji ji. - Josh Baines

You just had to do it. - Matt Richards

Memorable Quotes: “It’s okay, Emmett…” - Her final forgiveness for Emmett, despite knowing his actions led to her impending death.

Threads
Below is a list of threads containing Sapphire, in chronological order.

V7 Pregame: V7:
 * A Dream of Home
 * A Dream of Many Legs
 * Something Better
 * Break Your Halo
 * Bottomless Sorrow

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Sapphire Waters. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * One of the things about Sapphire that stands out to me is that, while she didn't have quite the focus and screen time of her handler's other characters, she felt anything but throwaway. In fact, Sapphire hit the ground running on the island, with a particularly creepy piece of dream imagery involving spiders. It does a nice job setting up a different voice for her, one which I would have loved to see developed more; the other thing I would say about Sapphire is that she doesn't feel like a character who necessarily intended to perish within the first couple days of the game.

But of course, the rolls are what they are, and Sapphire wore her most unfortunate fate well, and I don't think Swapping her was a mistake. When she met up with Emmett, both sides of the narrative did a good job integrating her in his social circle and making her actually feel like a friend of his (it really really helped that this was done before the rolls—little feels as forced and ramshackle as a character abruptly remembering they care deeply for someone else only when one side of the equation is slated to die). They had good chemistry, and by the time they were confronting Lorenzo, I was rooting for them to make it out alright even as I knew that wasn't what was going to happen.

Which brings me to another thing I enjoyed about Sapphire: her death played nice with continuity (allowing the hang-time to be in-character given the wound was sustained prior to the announcements), and also touched on the slow, painful process of succumbing to severe injuries. This latter aspect has been treated much better in V7 than any prior version I can recall, but Sapphire was the first to really intentionally play it up, using the helplessness of her situation to enhance the tragedy of her fate and also to provide further motivation and angst to Emmett. So, overall, I would say Sapphire ended up a very effective support character. At the same time, she showed a ton of potential to take a more leading role. Second Chances, perhaps? - MurderWeasel